


Getting Involved

by lena-in-a-red-dress (CSIGurlie07)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:00:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23951194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CSIGurlie07/pseuds/lena-in-a-red-dress
Summary: When Lena breaks up with James on Valentine's Day, he senses something deeper going on. Luckily, he has a mutual friend willing to dig a little deeper. (post 4x12 ficlet)
Relationships: Lena Luthor/James "Jimmy" Olsen
Kudos: 15





	Getting Involved

Kara doesn’t expect to find James on her doorstep a week after Valentine’s Day. She especially doesn’t expect the heavy set of his features, or the troubles turmoil in his eyes.  
  
She lets him inside, and doesn’t speak until they’ve drifted to the kitchen bar. “What’s wrong?”  
  
“Lena and I broke up.”  
  
Kara swallows, struggling to keep her shock hidden away. She hadn’t seen anything that suggested they were even having trouble, let alone cruising towards a split. “Oh. I’m sorry.”  
  
“Me too,” James returns honestly. He leans on his elbows, shaking his head. “On Valentine’s Day, no less.”  
  
“Really?”  
  
That doesn’t sound like Lena at all. Neither does the fact this is her first time hearing about it. Lena’s private, but she’s also considerate, and Kara’s surprised that she hasn’t been warned of the change in their group’s dynamic.  
  
“You didn’t mention it before…” Kara prods gently.  
  
James shrugs helplessly. “I dunno, I guess– I hoped she might change her mind after she cooled off, after she’d had time to mull things over more.I thought she might change her mind. I haven’t heard from her since.”  
  
Kara pushes her glasses up her nose, tilting her head as she tried to find words that didn’t sound like she was choosing sides.  
  
“I’ve been replaying it over and over in my head,” James continues. His gaze turns troubled. “Kara, it just doesn’t feel right.”

“How do you mean?”

“I dunno, it just… it felt like she was trying to pick a fight. Except we didn’t fight. We didn’t even argue. It was just… over. And she was just so… CALM about it.”  
  
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lena NOT calm,” Kara hedges. “If she’s been thinking about it for a while, it makes sense that she’d have distanced herself from it. That woman has an alarming ability to compartmentalize.”  
  
James draws back sharply, frustration coloring his features. “Yeah, true, but, then why Valentine’s Day? Why wait until we’re on the way to Paris? It was her idea to go in the first place!”  
  
Unease twists suddenly in the pit of Kara’s stomach. “It was her idea?”  
  
“Yeah! I stopped by L-Corp that morning to deliver her gift, and right there in her office she got the idea we should do Paris for the weekend. She insisted, even! But by the time we were on the way to the airport–”  
  
“Something changed,” Kara fills in.  
  
James nods, slumping forward on his elbows. “Yeah. I just don’t know what. And…” He spreads his hands. “I don’t know what to.”  
  
Kara gazes at him, and softens at the unhappiness she sees in him. “You want her back.”  
  
“Of course I do. She’s– amazing, and wonderful, and– I love her.” The admission comes softly, but unrepentent and unashamed. “I can’t really get into what we disagreed on, and if it really is the only thing going on, then yeah, I don’t see how we could make it work. But Kara… she was barely present that night. At the time I didn’t see it, and I responded to the words she was saying and completely missed whatever was underneath it. But there was something. I’m sure of it.”  
  
Kara nods. She knows what he means. It happens so rarely, with Lena so careful to give Kara her whole attention, but there are moments she sees the wheels turning in Lena’s head, and never knows quite what’s driving them.  
  
And he’s right– Lena might be aloof when delivering bad news, but the whiplash turnaround about Paris feels out of character. Lena is deliberate by nature, but she isn’t cruel.  
  
“I’ve tried calling,” James continues, “just to try and talk, so I can find out what’s going on, but she wouldn’t take my call, and if I push I’m afraid I’m just going to drive her further away.”  
  
Kara nods. “That’s a good call.”  
  
Brown eyes meet Kara’s gaze, heavy with a lack of options.  
  
“Look, I don’t want to put you in a difficult situation,” James says, “but you’re the only person I could think of that she might open up to. Do you think you could talk to her, try and find out what’s happening?”  
  
Kara hesitates. Getting in the middle of a break up– especially a break up between her ex and her best friend– isn’t an appealing course of action.  
  
“If you talk to her, and don’t sense anything unusual, I’ll drop it,” James promises. “I’ll deal with it. But my gut says something is wrong. Please, Kara… I know what I’m asking from you isn’t easy, but I need your trust on this one.”  
  
His words plant an anxious seed of doubt in Kara’s chest, and suddenly she’s not worried about getting involved– she’s worried about what she’ll find when she does.  
  
She’s not good at relationship advice, but trust she has in spades.  
  
“Yeah,” she says finally. “Yeah, of course.”

* * *

She goes the next day, deliberately reaching L-Corp after hours in an attempt to dodge the worst of Lena’s schedule. The building is quiet, but Lena’s office is oppressively so, burdened by its occupant’s heavy features, which barely lift at the sight of her.  
  
“Hey,” Kara greets. “Care for an emergency dinner date?”  
  
“That’s sweet of you, but I’m afraid I can’t.” Lena’s lips press together. “I wish you’d called first.”  
  
“That’s okay. It’s good to see you anyway.” Kara pauses. She studies Lena, and her clear distraction. Lena remains seated, focused intently on her computer screen.  
  
She’s used to Lena dropping everything when she arrives, and the change is jarring. But more concerning is the aloofness, and the way Lena doesn’t hold her gaze.  
  
“Lena, is everything okay?”  
  
“Yeah, of course” Lena breezes, still scrolling on her computer. “Why wouldn’t I be?”  
  
Kara swallows. “Um, well… James mentioned that you and he, um–”  
  
A sharp huff of impatience interrupts her. Lena rises to her feet, snapping her folder shut. “Of course he did,” she scoffs. Kara watches the bitter roll of Lena’s eyes, and the sneer thst curls her lips. “I should have known he’d get you in the divorce.”  
  
“Wha– Lena, I’m not– no one GETS me, I’m here as a friend. And I’m concerned?”  
  
“Why? Because I ended a relationship that was doomed to fail?”  
  
“Because you ended a relationship with someone you adore. And abruptly, at that. What happened? You guys were moving past the DA thing… and you were so excited for Valentine’s Day–”  
  
“Kara.”  
  
Lena’s interruption is sharp, sharper than Kara’s ever heard before. Even as Supergirl. With apprehension coiling in her stomach, Kara swallows. “Y-yes?”

Lena rises gracefully from her chair. She strides around the corner of her desk with a stiff spine and a lofty chin as she gestures casually with her hands.

“I admit I’ve been distracted lately,” she delivers with calm, measured syllables, “but refresh my memory– when was the last time we had a visit together that didn’t end with you leaving early?”  
  
Kara blinks, surprised by the question. “Oh, uh–”  
  
Cheeks flushing, Kara fishes through her memory for a viable candidate. They’d done brunch a week ago– which she’d had to leave to handle a five-alarm fire.  
  
“Well, there was spin class!” she blurts, and immediately recognizes is the wrong answer when Lena’s eyebrow arches.  
  
“You got a cramp– apparently it was so bad you had to go home to ice it. Or maybe the ice at the gym wasn’t up to your standards. Either way, I had to search the entire facility to learn you’d simply gone.”  
  
“Well, there was…”  
  
“Lunch, obviously. Which you also left early, for a meeting you forgot you had with Nia.” Lena smirks mirthlessly. “Which she apparently ALSO forgot, because when I mentioned it when I visited CatCo that afternoon, she couldn’t quite scramble quick enough to cover for you.”  
  
Dread pools in Kara’s stomach, but Lena doesn’t make the connection Kara assumes she’s headed for.  
  
“I could go on,” Lena continues, “but my point is you barely have enough time in your life to sit through a single meal with me.”  
  
Kara’s cheeks flush with guilt.  
  
“I may have accepted it as a condition of our friendship, but please don’t insult me by assuming it means you have some unique insight into my personal life.”  
  
Mouth filling with a bitter taste, Kara meets Lena’s gaze ready to protest. Lena recognizes the look in her eye and tilts her head in readiness.  
  
“You disagree?”  
  
“Yes.” Kara lifts her chin defiantly. If Lena’s spoiling for a fight, then Kara will give her one. “I do.”  
  
“All right,” Lena allows, folding her arms and leaning back to rest against her desk. “I’ll humor you. Your argument?”  
  
“Game night.”  
  
Kara expects it to be an endgamer, a logical checkmate. But the slow smirk that curls Lena’s lips makes her stomach drop.  
  
“Game night,” Lena echoes.  
  
“Yes, game night.”  
  
“And your logic is that game night is… for friends?”  
  
“Yes!” Kara’s lifts almost to a shout. “Game night is for friends, and you’re invited to game night, ergo– we’re friends! GOOD friends!”  
  
Lena nods, slowly. Predatorily. “Okay. So. If game nights are for friends, and if game night is something you’ve been hosting since before you and I even met… what conclusion should I draw from the fact that I didn’t get an invite until I started dating James?”  
  
The wheels in Kara’s brain grind to a halt, leaving her standing frozen in front of a smirking Lena who knows she’s won.  
  
A Lena who leans forward with a mocking scrunch of of her nose. “Syllogistically speaking, of course.”  
  
Kara has nothing. Nothing in the long moment Lena gives her to respond before she shrugs her eyebrows and rises from her desk.  
  
“Well, I have a lot to do,” she delivers coolly, “and I’m sure you have somewhere urgent you need to be.”  
  
She returns to her chair, swivelling the seat towards her but pausing before sinking into it. “It was good to see you, Kara, but I’m afraid I’ll need to cancel our lunch date this week. Can’t be helped.”  
  
Kara swallows. “I’m happy to reschedule–”  
  
“It seems I’ll be busy for some time,” Lena glosses right over Kara’s croak. She fracefully lowers herself into her seat, and scoots in, prepared to work. “Why don’t you call Eve to find an opening?”  
  
Call… Eve? Kara hasn’t had to go through Lena’s assistant in, in… in years. She grits her teeth. Fine. If that’s how Lena wants to play, she’ll play. For now.  
  
“I’ll do that,” she bites out, shoving her purse higher on her shoulder. “I’ll see you soon.”  
  
“Do call first.”  
  
Kara storms out with a lump in her throat, anger and guilt clashing violently. As she stomps into the elevator and jabs the ground floor button, she pulls out her phone to dial a familiar number.  
  
“James? It’s Kara.” She swallows again and this time, the lump dissolves to bitter concern. “Yeah, I did. I’m leaving L-Corp now.”  
  
She jabs the door close button repeatedly, eager to get out the building. They still take their sweet time, remaining stubbornly immovable.  
  
“You were right,” she grinds out, phone creaking ominously under her grip.  
  
Finally, the doors slowly close on her.  
  
“Something is definitely up.”


End file.
